Invitation
by Jyet
Summary: After finding a strange artifact, Yuffie seeks advice from Vincent and Cloud.


Invitation

If the place Yuffie invited him to hadn't been directly between the day's last delivery and Seventh Heaven, Cloud wouldn't have come. It was late afternoon, almost dusk, and he really didn't feel up to whatever she had planned. He rolled to a stop in the middle of the empty street and checked the number of the old one-room house. He had the right place.

Cloud hoisted himself off Fenrir and tapped the kickstand down with his foot. As he walked up to the house he felt a wave of dizziness and threw his hand out to the chipped brick wall for support as he leaned over and coughed hard. After a moment he felt better and straightened up. Adjusting the sleeve over the black splotch on his left arm, he went to the front door and knocked twice. There was no answer and after a second Cloud slowly opened the unlocked door.

Yuffie had said the place was "mega-gloomy." For once, she wasn't exaggerating. Nobody had bothered to restore power to the abandoned sections of old Midgar like this one, and so the only light was a lantern on the coffee table and a few candles sitting around, flicking in the, well… mega-gloom. "Hello?" Cloud asked.

There was a sudden movement to his right and Cloud whirled to find Yuffie making a face at him, her features washed out by the flashlight she was holding halfway under her chin. "Boo!" she yelled, before snapping it off. "Did I scare ya?"

Before Cloud could answer there was another voice, this time behind him. "I apologize for her." Cloud turned around to see Vincent's silhouette against the wall. "She refuses to take anything seriously." He moved to a nearby armchair and sat down.

"And you refused to chase the flashlight beam like a cat. I had to entertain myself _somehow_- hey!" Yuffie jerked away but couldn't stop Cloud from flicking the switch on the flashlight. The beam died and the girl's face was back to normal.

"Well, this must be important if she managed to get you out here, Vincent." Cloud moved to the ratty-looking couch next to the table and sat down.

"Hey, you took my spot!" Yuffie plopped herself down one cushion away and dust billowed out. Cloud coughed again and closed his eyes. When he opened them he saw Vincent watching the scene, neither amusement nor distaste in his face. Cloud would never get used to that lack of expression.

As Yuffie squirmed around on the couch, brushing her legs off and trying to get comfortable, Cloud looked over at Vincent. "How'd she find you, anyway?"

Having settled on propping her feet on the coffee table and sinking halfway into the couch, Yuffie looked over at Cloud. "Oh, you don't know his address? Here, let me write it…" She trailed off as she glanced around for a pen and before shrugging. "I'll text it to you. He's got a postal box in Rocket Town."

"And I'd prefer that in the future you actually use it for its intended purpose, rather than as the starting point for stalking me." Yuffie stuck her tongue out at Vincent, and Cloud smiled despite himself.

A moment passed in silence before Yuffie spoke. "Okay, so." She slapped the couch cushions with her hands, sending up more traces of dust, and then she turned to Cloud. "I was around Nibelheim and there was this spooky cave that I hadn't explored yet. You know, sometimes people go in a place like that and they drop stuff, or they, uh, don't come out at all and then, you know, they don't need anything they had, like materia or anything. And of course Shinra had all kinds of secret experiments going on. So sometimes you find interesting and valuable stuff even way away from civilization like that."

She pulled her legs off the coffee table and straightened up a little. "But this time I found something kinda weird."

Yuffie pointed to the table and Cloud squinted, not seeing anything. "Next to the lantern," Vincent said. Cloud leaned closer and it seemed to pop into view, something square and black that blended right into the dark wood of the coffee table.

He started to reach for it before pausing to glance over at Vincent, who nodded. "Hey, you don't get to give him permission, _I_ found it," Yuffie told Vincent as Cloud picked up the palm-sized thing. She looked over to see Cloud holding the square in his hand. "Feel free to pick it up, Cloud."

It didn't seem all that special. Cloud didn't know what the smooth, dark thing was made of. If he had to guess, he would have said it was something turned out by a Shinra industrial research lab, maybe a sample of a new alloy. As he turned it in his hand, he realized how utterly, completely black it was, like the Black Materia.

Cloud started to feel a little uneasy. He realized Vincent, and more surprisingly Yuffie, hadn't spoken, and he could feel them watching him. Cloud put the square back on the table and only then met their eyes, looking first at Vincent and then Yuffie.

The ninja spoke first. "You're creeped out, too."

"You two felt the same way?"

"Yeah. Or at least _I_ did. King Creepy over there didn't say anything about how he felt, but I bet he was rattled despite his high tolerance for creepy things."

Vincent spoke. "It doesn't feel right."

"What is it?" Cloud glanced over at where the thing almost seemed to be trying to blend back into the table and shook his head.

"I believe it's an artifact from the Ancients' time," said Vincent. Yuffie's mouth fell open a little and she looked at him.

"_That's_ what you were holding back? Why didn't you tell me before? This thing's gotta be worth-"

"That's why I didn't tell you." Vincent cut Yuffie off, but he was looking at Cloud now.

"How do you know that's what it is?" Cloud asked.

Vincent shifted a bit in the armchair. "There's writing along the edges. Cetra is almost impossible to translate, but I've read some of the history books in the Shinra Mansion's library. One of the Ancients' myths involved tablets that, every hundred years, would let one call upon the resources of the Planet."

He looked at them as if expecting them to understand something. Cloud and Yuffie just looked back blankly.

"These tablets could grant wishes."

A moment passed before Yuffie started laughing. "Oh man, that's good! I found a magic wish-granting little stone! So how do I ask it for a motorcycle?" She reached toward the coffee table. "Shake it three times and say…" Yuffie's voice faded as her fingertips touched the black slab. Her joking grin fell away before she slowly withdrew her hand and sank back into the couch.

Vincent cleared his throat and continued. "'Wishes' might be the wrong term. According to the legend, there were two tablets, stored in a temple until the time was right. The Cetra elders would then, in their wisdom, decide what gift to ask of the Planet. One sacrifice that the Planet had received that it might return to those who had made it.

"But there was a young Cetra who was brash and arrogant – he appears in some other myths as well. He went to the temple on the day the tablets would work again, but so early that the elders weren't awake yet. The ceremony was always performed in private, so he only knew the basic outline of how the tablets were to be used.

"It was dark and he could only find one of the tablets, but he decided that was enough. He held the tablet, searched inside himself, and wished for what he wanted, what he thought would be best for him and the one he still loved, even after she had been taken from him."

Vincent stopped and looked at Cloud. His gaze was suddenly intense and Cloud glanced away, over at Yuffie. She was staring at the floor, a strange expression on her face. "That's all?" Cloud asked Vincent.

"The rest of the story has been lost. But these types of legends, the arrogant young man going over the heads of those who know better, don't end well. And the story is about two tablets. We just have the one."

"But you think that myth is true? That Yuffie found a magical tablet from the Ancients?"

Yuffie spoke without looking up. "It _does_ feel pretty weird. And it looks like the Black Materia. That thing could change sizes and it summoned Meteor. It's not a big step from there to granting wishes." She paused to think. "So if we find the other tablet- I mean, if this is for real, and we find the other one, we can try to use them?"

"You stumbled onto this in a cave in the middle of nowhere. It's very unlikely you'll find the other one. But there's nothing stopping you from trying to use this alone. It was probably lying in that cave far longer than a hundred years before you found it."

Even while talking to Yuffie, Vincent was still looking at Cloud, as if expecting him to do something. Cloud finally had to ask. "What is it? You keep staring at me like I've got something to do with this." Cloud turned to Yuffie. "Why did you invite me here?"

"It was his idea," she answered. They looked at Vincent.

"You need to make a decision, Cloud," he said. "You need to decide whether we should do anything with this artifact."

"Why me?"

"You're responsible. And you might be the only one with a strong enough connection to the Lifestream to bring something out of it."

Cloud was confused but didn't have time to ask anything before Yuffie jumped in. "So why am _I _here?"

"It's your property. Also, Cloud could use someone whose perspective is …brighter… than mine, and I didn't know how Tifa would react. Even though she was also in the Lifestream with you, Cloud, her feelings about this might be different than yours."

It finally clicked, and Yuffie was the first to talk. "You seriously think it can bring someone back to life?" She paused and glanced at Cloud. "Why should _he_ get to use it? My moth-" Vincent cut her off.

"You've accepted it. Just as I've accepted what happened in my life. I don't deserve a chance to change things. Perhaps you do…" Vincent looked back over at Cloud even as he continued to address Yuffie. "…But it's different with Cloud than with either of us. It's different than a mother being swallowed by the sea, or someone failing to stop his love's self-destruction." Vincent's eyes bored into Cloud's. "He had broken free from Sephiroth's control, and she had called Holy. Everything would have been alright if one of them had looked up. If he had noticed the sword before it was halfway through her-"

"_Stop!_" Yuffie shouted. Her eyes were watery and she was rigid in her seat. Cloud didn't realize he was tense too, had coiled up like he was ready to strike out and make Vincent shut up. But the silence lingered, dissolving the tension, and Cloud's fingers reluctantly eased their grip on the arm of the sofa. The memories started to fade back into his brain like a red stain into pink fabric.

Vincent coughed. "I apologize." He paused and gratitude seemed to flash briefly in his eyes. "This is why I wanted you here, Yuffie. Of course, you can use it as you wish. I only truly know my own loss, not yours. I have no stake in this."

He and Yuffie were looking back at Cloud again, but it didn't seem strange anymore. Cloud was back in his old role of leader, decision-maker by default when no one else wanted to make hard choices. "We don't even know if it'll work," he said, almost desperately. "Yuffie, this is yours. You should use it, if you want to."

Yuffie met his eyes and he could see a flicker of indecision before she shook her head. "No…" Her eyes fell and then seemed to obey his silent wish for them to come back up. She shook her head again. "No, Vincent's right. You want this."

They both looked down at the tablet. Cloud picked it up and started to concentrate, thinking of _her_… and then realized he hadn't asked how this process worked. He looked up at Vincent, who said, "It's supposed to be an instinct. Hold it and you feel something familiar. Focus on that. That's all there is."

Cloud looked back down at his hand and felt like he should close his eyes, so he did. In his mind's eye there was a pale green glow and a face looking up at him earnestly, eyes warm with the glow of knowing what was right and that it was being done. It felt warm and, indeed, familiar. He'd seen her look like that before, right before her face seemed to crack with the impact of the blade. But this time she kept smiling, looking into his eyes and smiling, and Cloud felt warmer, because she was coming toward him now.

There was a noise outside and Cloud opened his eyes. It didn't seem gloomy anymore. He didn't mind the drafty room, or the way the candles seemed to shy away from the windows. He looked over and there was Yuffie, watching him. He smiled at her.

As Yuffie drew back from Cloud a little, there was another noise, near the front door. Cloud looked over toward it and his eyes moved over Vincent. He was sitting still, looking at Cloud with the same expression as before. No emotion, maybe not even any analysis. Just taking it in.

Now there was a scratch, turning into a knock halfway. Someone was at the door. Still smiling, Cloud looked back to Yuffie. She had a strange expression on her face, almost as if she was absolutely terrified. Cloud saw her eyes move between him and Vincent and the front door as there was another knock. She seemed to tremble and then broke, standing up and almost yelling, "I didn't invite anyone else, but I'll get it, I'll get the door right now so you guys just stay there," and she walked past the coffee table and Vincent, her boots tapping on the wood floor and then padding across the thin rug the owners had left behind when they fled or died and she pulled open the door a quarter of the way and froze.

The air outside was still cold but Cloud felt warm as he looked toward the door and the guest hidden on the other side. Yuffie slowly backed away and moved to the other side of Vincent's armchair. That seemed rude because Cloud knew who had come, and shrinking back in horror wasn't the right way for Yuffie to welcome someone who had been gone for so long. Cloud stood up and moved to the door, opening it the rest of the way.

She was back, finally. The breeze made her long dress shift around her thin figure as she smiled at him. Cloud was reminded of how she looked when she first offered him a flower so long ago. And she was offering him a flower now too, the dry yellow bulb connected to a brown stem clasped between the bony remnants of her delicate fingers. As Cloud reached to take it he looked back at her face. Her smile had never been so wide.

Then there was a crash and she was gone, turned into a mess of white fragments before his eyes. Cloud dove to save her, to catch her before she hit the ground, but instead he landed on a washed-out pink dress with a hole punched in the chest. His hand had fallen on the flower and he picked it up, looking at it for only an instant before the warmth inside him turned into white-hot rage, and he scrabbled and pushed at the ground to turn himself over and look back at the doorway, ready to lunge at whoever had taken her away again.

Vincent stood there with his gun still drawn and now aimed at Cloud. The sight made Cloud realize he was about to die trying to avenge a ghoul instead of a woman and he tried to say something, not that it was okay, but _something_ to stop Vincent from firing a second shot. But all he could do was turn his head and throw up onto the ground, the sick feel of the fabric and the flower still in his hand making him empty himself on the pavement.

When he was done the only sound was Yuffie crying softly, and Cloud couldn't look back. He got to his feet and mounted Fenrir, starting the bike and driving away as fast as he could.


End file.
